Fierce liquor lobby has little regard for law

Chandigarh: The well-entrenched lobby of liquor smugglers is not taking lightly to new players, which is resulting in bloody turf wars of the kind witnessed in Dera Baba Nanak on Tuesday.

Interstate smuggling of liquor is a multi-crore venture with most of the big players being politicians or their henchmen, who operate with impunity in connivance with the police and excise authorities.

Needless to say, the common man is always at the receiving end. Genuine buyers are often mistaken for smugglers and assaulted or even worse killed, while the accused roam scot-free, thanks to their well-connected masters.

Contractors suffer huge losses as smugglers buy cheap liquor from other states and sell it in Punjab. They thus resort to deputing men to keep an eye on people ferrying liquor. And whenever, the “monitoring” team comes across smugglers, a confrontation takes place often leading to bloodshed.